Assisted dying bill 'scares me'

"The time has come" for politicians to debate assisted dying, Lord Falconer has said.

The former Labour cabinet minister told the Today programme that while many terminally ill patients would not wish to employ their right to die, others should have the liberty to choose.

The bill, to be debated in the House of Lords, would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to terminally ill patients judged to have less than six months to live.

But disability campaigner Baroness Campbell explained she has been wrongly diagnosed by doctors as terminally ill on "about 5 occasions" and worries that the bill does not contain the necessary safeguards.

She added that she is "scared" of the bill as had it been in place previously she might have taken the option to die.